The extensive maritime spaces and their associated coastal zones are critically important to sustaining life on Earth. Coastal and ocean areas are the drivers for the global economy and play a crucial and increasingly important role in global food security. These areas are therefore of critical importance across scales, from the global to the regional, national and sub-national coastal community levels. The oceans are, however, also increasingly under threat, notably as a result of enhanced competition for coastal and marine resources, coupled with increasingly intense and diverse uses which often occur in coincident maritime spaces leading to tensions and incompatible overlaps.

Increasing use of the oceans and thus enhanced opportunities and threats related to the oceans demand action. The core theme of the 9^th ABLOS conference is to address advances and challenges in governing our shared Blue World under the framework of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea from both legal and technical perspectives